And strange to say, by noontime the feeling became actually pleasant.

He even felt that without this mosquito-filled atmosphere around him, and that mosquito-paste mingled with perspiration which his hand smeared over his face, and that unceasing irritation all over his body, the forest would lose for him some of its character and charm.

These myriads of insects were so well suited to that monstrously lavish wild vegetation, these multitudes of birds and beasts which filled the forest, this dark foliage, this hot scented air, these runlets filled with turbid water which everywhere soaked through from the Terek and gurgled here and there under the overhanging leaves, that the very thing which had at first seemed to him dreadful and intolerable now seemed pleasant.

After going round the place where yesterday they had found the animal and not finding anything, he felt inclined to rest.

The sun stood right above the forest and poured its perpendicular rays down on his back and head whenever he came out into a glade or onto the road.